


Private Lesson

by kurooing



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 07:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/897493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurooing/pseuds/kurooing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei's swimming lessons aren't going as well as hoped for, but Nagisa has a plan! A most perfect obviously flawless plan to help Rei-chan learn to swim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Private Lesson

**Author's Note:**

  * For [debacle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/debacle/gifts).



“Rei-chan! Rei-chan, wake up!” Nagisa repeatedly shook the shoulder of his sleeping friend. After a minute or so of this, Rei blinked his eyes a few times and rolled over to look at the blurry shape with blonde hair standing over him.

“Nagisa-kun? What are you doing . . .” Rei shot upward from his bed, fumbling for his glasses on the table next to him. “How did you get into my house?!” He shifted to put his feet on the ground, and in an instant Nagisa was sitting next to him on the bed, smiling up at Rei with that look that you almost wanted to smack off of him. Well that, or . . . no, Rei would not entertain that ‘or’ today. Especially not after just waking up. Instead he thought about how much of his sleep cycle had been prematurely cut-off and how difficult it was going to be for him to fix it. He was fairly sure that he’d been in the middle of a REM cycle when Nagisa managed to shake him into consciousness.

“Your mother let me in, of course! Now get dressed, we’ve got work to do.” Grabbing onto Rei’s arm, Nagisa stood up and pulled, trying to get the not-quite-awake-enough-to-stand Rei off his bed. 

After a brief glance at his alarm clock, Rei looked back to Nagisa with agitation. “It’s five in the morning.”

“Right! Which means no one else will be at the pool. We’ll have it all to ourselves, Rei-chan!”

“S-swimming? Now?”

“Yeah! I have an idea that I think will help keep you from sinking to the bottom of the pool again.” Nagisa gestured to a tote bag sitting on the floor across the room; Rei couldn’t tell what was inside it, but he wasn’t sure he trusted any idea Nagisa came up with on his own. Finally succombing to the insistent tugging at his arm, Rei stood and walked toward the bag. Nagisa leaped in front of him and put a hand on his chest. “Uh-uh, Rei-chan. It’s a surprise! Now hurry and get your swimsuit on so we can go try!”

  


Fifteen minutes later both boys were standing in their suits beside the Iwatobi swimming pool. Rei pushed his glasses up and folded his arms. “So what is this idea you have?” Nagisa smiled and held a finger out in front of him before running off with the tote bag. “Wha--?”

“Ok! Close your eyes, Rei-chan! And hold out your arms.” Still skeptical of this entire endeavor and becoming increasingly more curious as to why he even got out of bed, Rei looked down his glasses at Nagisa and steadfastly did not close his eyes.

“Reeeeeeei-chan, close your eyes! I told you it was a surprise!” Sniffing dejectedly, Rei obeyed. “Take one BIG step forward. Lift your feet up high when you do it,” Nagisa instructed.

“I thought I was to hold my arms out; which is it?” 

“Both!” Rei shook his head but did as he was told. After he took his forward step he felt something slide up his left arm, squeaking as it got to the upper arm before stopping. The same then happened to his right arm, and seconds after that something slid up his thighs and settled around his waist. At this point Rei had a sneaking suspicion that whatever he was about to see when he opened his eyes was not something he wanted any part of At All.

“Can I open my eyes now, Nagisa-kun?” he asked tentatively. 

“Go ahead!” Rei lowered his arms and opened one eye slightly, gazing down at himself. He jumped up when he saw--

“FLOATIES!? I AM NOT A CHILD, NAGISA-KUN!” Wrapped snugly around his waist was a light yellow plastic tube, covered with assorted sea creatures and a few palm trees. On his arms were the bright yellow child’s flotation devices he hadn’t seen since he was about four. None of which Rei had ever or would ever wear. Well, not on purpose anyway.

“But now you should be able to do your swimming without sinking, Rei-chan! The floats will keep you above the water whether you want them to or not; it’s perfect!” 

“I look ridiculous!”

“Well of course you do! Why do you think I wanted us to do this without anyone else around? I didn’t want you to be embarrassed again in front of everyone, Rei-chan.” For the first time this morning, Nagisa looked down, away from Rei’s eyes. There was a hint of red tinging his the top of his cheeks. It only took a moment before the look was gone and Nagisa was pulling Rei closer to the edge of the pool, laughing and smiling like usual. When the reached the edge, Nagisa released Rei’s arm and took a step backward.

“Where are you going, Nagi--” Rei’s words were cut off as he was shoved unceremoniously into the pool. Before he could even do anything about the situation he’d popped right back up to the surface like a buoy. Nagisa was laughing hysterically from a few feet away; he’d jumped in after Rei on the off-chance his brilliant plan didn’t work and Rei needed rescuing. Again. A small part of Nagisa was kind of hoping for that, but he knew Rei had to learn to swim as soon as possible and almost-drowning was definitely counterproductive to that end.

“See! It works!” he said before swimming out past where Rei was bobbing up and down slightly, looking completely miserable. Or possibly murderous. Maybe both? Either way, he was certainly not a happy little butterfly. “Now come on, Rei-chan, let’s get you swimming!” 

Rei pulled off his glasses that had miraculously stayed on during his involuntary plunge and slid his goggles onto his eyes. Nagisa was standing a little in front of him, his arms outstretched toward Rei, just as they had been the first day the club had tried to teach him to swim. 

“Do you not think that these ridiculous things are going to impair my mobility?” Rei asked, flapping his arms up and down to indicate the arm floaties. Nagisa tilted his head a little and put one hand up to his mouth, giggling.

“Rei-chan, we’re going to start with just your legs so don’t worry about that, I have it all worked out! I’m taking responsibility, just like you said.” He held his hands out to Rei and wiggled his fingers. “Now give me your hands!” Placing his hands into Nagisa’s, Rei began to kick his legs, just like he’d done before. Just like he’d read how to do. Maybe if this did work, he would be one step closer to the beautiful swimming that Haru-chan seemed to pull off so effortlessly. 

Nagisa walked backward, not pulling Rei forward, just guiding him in the right direction. He was pleased to find that Rei was able to propel himself forward almost entirely on his own this time. It was working! Once they had crossed half the length of the pool that way, Nagisa considered releasing Rei’s hands to see if progress continued without his aid, but he was enjoying the contact too much to let go. This was the only way so far that Nagisa had been able to get voluntary physical contact from Rei, and he wasn’t about to give that up so easily. Unfortunately, when they got to the far side of the pool, Rei had had enough of the hand holding, feeling confident in his skills. Floatie-enabled skills, but skills nonetheless.

“I’m certain I can do this now,” Rei said as he shucked off the arm floaties, “And I won’t be needing these.” He tossed the inflated yellow objects out of the pool and readied himself to start. Nagisa ducked over into the next lane to give him space, leaning on the marker that now separated them. 

“Go for it, Rei-chan! I believe in you!” Rei wasn’t sure why he found Nagisa’s declaration comforting, but he was suddenly even more determined to swim. He inhaled deeply and leaned forward to start his breaststroke. Concentrating intently, it was a whole minute before he stopped to check his progress across the pool.

On the plus side, he hadn’t sank. On the other hand, he’d gone maybe three feet from where he started. Just as Rei was ready to throw off his goggles and splash his way over to the edge of the pool to get out, Nagisa dove under the lane marker and appeared in front of him, grabbing his arms. 

“Rei-chan! You did so well! You’ve never gone this far on your own before; I told you I had a great plan!” Rei frowned slightly at Nagisa’s exuberant face.

“I could probably have floated this far in the same amount of time, I wouldn’t call it a succ--” 

For the second time in the short amount of time he’d been awake, Rei found himself interrupted mid-sentence. But this time his lips were stopped by another set, not by the still-fairly-chilly waters of the Iwatobi pool. Nagisa had pushed himself up to eye-level with Rei’s floatie and decided he didn’t really care so much about teaching this ridiculous boy to swim at this particular moment.


End file.
